Scammers using the Net to hype stocks are being targeted with software that can spot fraudulent trading patterns. Many hi-tech conmen use junk mail to hype stocks so they can sell shares they own in the companies at a profit. It has been estimated that 15% of all spam or junk email is made up of messages that "pump" stocks that are later "dumped."

Developed by VeriSign, <A HREF="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7552009.stm">the anti-fraud software</A> works by keeping an eye on real-time trading activity. Verisign's software is a module that brokers can add to their in-house trading system that alerts anti-fraud teams to look more closely at trades that exhibit certain behaviour patterns.